Investor Relations

WILMINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 13, 2003--Charles River Laboratories (NYSE:CRL), a leading provider of pre-clinical research products and services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, announces the formation of its Scientific Advisory Board. The mission of this six member board is to provide advice, counsel and input with regard to potential new areas of growth to further enhance the Company's portfolio of high-end products and services. The appointments are: Geoffrey M. Duyk, M.D., Ph.D., of Exelixis Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Joseph J. Catino, Ph.D., of Bayer Corporation; William S. Hancock, Ph.D., D.Sc., of the Barnett Institute at Northeastern University; Brian Huber, Ph.D., of GlaxoSmithKline; Colin McKerlie, D.V.M., D.V.Sc., M.R.C.V.S., of The Hospital for Sick Children; and, Jill Mesirov, Ph.D., of the Whitehead Institute.

James C. Foster, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Charles River, said, "We are very excited to have these world class experts on our Scientific Advisory Board to help guide Charles River's success. They will play a vital role in advising us on technologies we currently use and new technologies for licensing, as well as advising us on potential acquisitions. Their technical expertise and scientific judgment will provide valuable insights, benefiting our customers in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, academia, and government."

    Chairman

    Geoffrey M. Duyk, M.D., Ph.D.
    President, Research and Development and Chief Scientific Officer
    Director, Board of Directors
    Exelixis Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Dr. Duyk leads a 550+ person group focused on the discovery and development of small molecule therapeutics. Prior to joining Exelixis in 1977, he was Vice President of Genomics at Millennium where he was responsible for building and leading the informatics, automation, DNA sequencing and genotyping groups as well as the mouse and human genetics group. Prior to his tenure at Millennium, Dr. Duyk was an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School while also serving as a Co- Principal Investigator at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Duyk continues to be a member of numerous NIH panels and oversight committees focused on the planning and execution of the human genome project.

    Members

    Joseph J. Catino, Ph.D.
    Senior Vice President, Research, Bayer Corporation

With 23 years of pharmaceutical experience, Dr. Catino has particular expertise in biotechnology, gene therapy and small molecule drug discovery. Under his leadership, eight pre-clinical candidates for the treatment of oncology and metabolic diseases have been delivered from the Bayer Research Center. Dr. Catino was involved in the highly successful collaboration between Bayer Corporation and Millennium Pharmaceuticals in the pursuit of genomic targets. Dr. Catino is also on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of CURE, Connecticut United Research Excellence.

    William S. Hancock, Ph.D., D.Sc.
    Bradstreet Chair in Bioanalytical Chemistry
    Barnett Institute and Department of Chemistry
    Northeastern University

Dr. Hancock served on the faculty of Chemistry and Biochemistry of Massey University, New Zealand. After coming to the U.S., he was a visiting scientist at the Bureau of Drugs, Food and Drug Administration, in Washington D.C., then Director of Analytical Chemistry at Genentech, Inc., and Principal Laboratory Scientist at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories before joining ThemoFinnigan in 2000. He is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering of Yale, University. Dr. Hancock is the President of the California Separation Science Council. He has published over 160 articles, 34 review chapters, 7 books and holds 9 patents. He has recently agreed to be the senior editor of the new American Chemical Society's publication, Journal of Proteome Research.

    Brian Huber, Ph.D.
    Vice President of the Biology Division, Drug Discovery
    GlaxoSmithKline

Dr. Huber's current responsibilities include efforts in virology with interest in HIV, Hepatitis C, HPV, Herpes; metabolic disease, in particular, diabetes, obesity, aging, and molecular pharmacology. Dr. Huber is a member of numerous scientific and scholarly societies such as the American Association for Cancer Research and the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. He is also a Fellow of the American College of Clinical Pharmacology and a Diplomate of the American Board of Clinical Pharmacology.

    Colin McKerlie, D.V.M., D.V.Sc., M.R.C.V.S.
    Research Scientist, Integrative Biology Research Program
    The Hospital for Sick Children
    Toronto, Canada

Dr. McKerlie's research endeavors encompass the pathology phenotype of knock-out, transgenic, and mutagenized animals; rodent models of genetic and infectious lung disease; and, comparative pathology. He is Vice President of the Toronto Centre for Phenogenomics, one of the largest research centers for mouse models of human disease. Dr. McKerlie is also associated with the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, one of the world's leading academic centers in biomedical research, particularly in functional genomics and the development of genomic tools including a priority program that focuses on transgenic mouse and embryonic stem cell technologies to generate animal models of human disease.

    Jill P. Mesirov, Ph.D.
    Associate Director and Chief Informatics Officer
    Director, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Program
    Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
    Whitehead/MIT Center for Genome Research

In her current role, Dr. Mesirov is one of the leading contributors to the Human Genome Project. She is responsible for the bioinformatics, computational biology, and research computing program for the Center. She is also adjunct professor of bioinformatics at Boston University. Dr. Mesirov has spent many years working in high-performance computing and the development of parallel algorithms relevant to problems that arise in science, engineering and business applications. Among her many honors, Dr. Mesirov is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She also serves as an editor for several leading journals in computational science and applied mathematics.

About Charles River Laboratories

Founded nearly sixty years ago, Charles River Laboratories, based in Wilmington, Massachusetts, is a leading provider of critical research tools and integrated support services that enable innovative and efficient drug discovery and development. The Company is the global leader in providing the animal research models required in research and development for new drugs, devices and therapies. The Company also offers a broad and growing portfolio of biomedical products and services that enable customers to reduce cost, increase speed, and enhance productivity and effectiveness in drug discovery and development. Charles River's customer base spans over 50 countries, and includes all of the major pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, and many leading hospitals and academic institutions. The Company operates 82 facilities in 16 countries worldwide.

Find out more about Charles River Laboratories at: www.criver.com

    CONTACT: Charles River Laboratories
             Corporate Communications:
             Elizabeth Ferber, 978-658-6000, ext. 1693
             corpcomm@criver.com
             or
             Investor Relations:
             Susan Hardy, 978-658-6000, ext. 1616
             shardy@criver.com

    SOURCE: Charles River Laboratories